73rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry

Co K

31stIllinois Volunteer Infantry "The Dirty-First"

Greetings
to everyone that has been interested in the Dirty First Mess’ hybrid company at
Columbus-Belmont’s annual Civil War Days in 2018! The portrayal of this effort is that of
Company K of the Thirty-First Illinois at the time of the Battle of Belmont in
November of 1861. We’re working hard to make this appealing to both
mainstream/garrison reenactors and hardcore/campaigner reenactors, and the
result should be interesting. As part of this, we’ve been granted permission to
establish a stationary campsite in the original earthworks for the weekend.
From this we will be posting guard throughout both days, as well as several
short marches in the area, and participating in the battle scenario on each
day. In addition, there is an optional Ration issue that we have fit into the
scenario, please contact Nik Berger (see below) if you wish to take part in it;
it’s not required and if you wish to bring your own food that is perfectly
fine. We also ask that anyone participating keeps all modern items that they
insist on bringing hidden from the others that are participating (inside of
your tent, etc.) and stay in character. We will be taking part in various
activities throughout the event, some of which we wish to keep as a surprise –
for now. There has been an inquiry into escalating our effort into a battalion,
although at this time the intention is to remain a single consolidated company;
this is an early war scenario and companies at the time were near
full-strength, and the current interest does not justify a battalion with large
company sizes in mind.

The command staff for this effort is:

Captain – Ryan Schuda

Lieutenant
– Nik Berger

Orderly
Sergeant – Erik Schultz

2nd
Sergeant – Rich Neier

Due to
having several reenactment units interested or committed to this effort,
corporal positions will be assigned based on attendance from these various
units on Saturday morning, and if interested and committed numbers continue to
grow, another Lieutenant position will be created and held by a member of one
of those organizations.

We’ve
taken the liberty of including the uniform and equipment guidelines, our
contact information, as well as preliminary orders of the day per request in
this communique. Orders of the Day will also be posted at company headquarters
during the event.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Being able to
perform heavy marching order (knapsack/blanket roll) is a REQUIREMENT for this company, even if it's just an empty blanket
rolled up and thrown over your shoulder. This is a '61 event, so heavy and
overloaded packs are encouraged. While we do plan on a few small marches, none
of them will be very long.